oh when will the night feeds end :(

[lola88]

someone tell me it will end at some point. DS is 4 months and still up for 2 feeds during the night with no end in sight. It seems everyone i know has a baby that sleeps through the night. He is the only baby at mother and toddlers his age still up twice a night so they say.

I'd say exaggerating or lucky too. Mine still woke a lot when ill or teething long after 9 months. Just to add that in.

If only naptime was real It made me laugh like a drain when I first saw it Lola

DS was having at least one night feed every night till about 2.2 years, when I was a month or two into pg. Now at 2.5 y.o. he wakes just as often, he just wants cuddles most of the time rather than a feed.

Twice a night is pretty good at 4 months - most children are in the middle of the 4 month sleep regression.

I agree with taking at least some with a pinch of salt. One mum I know described her son as 'sleeping through the night' at 3 months - what she meant was that he didn't feed at all during the night, even though for the second half she was awake every hour to replace his dummy.

They aren't lying . DD slept through from 10 weeks, had a blip at 4 months and 8 months, otherwise fine. DS1 slept through from 6 weeks, no blips, but did become a very early waking toddler which was hard going for a while. DS2 finally started sleeping through at 9 months old, I'm pretty sure he was still waking twice at 4 months.

The moral of the story? All babies are different and they'll do it when they're good and ready. While you can help by keeping things calm and quiet and dimly lit in the night, ultimately it's down to them. If other mothers are being smug thinking it's their superior parenting that's done it then perhaps they'll get their comeuppance eventually .

I'm afraid I can't tell you when it will get better for you, but it almost certainly will, and one day it will all be a dim and distant memory.

The youngest of mine to drop all their night feeds was 18 months old. I have 3DCs.

Are you breastfeeding? If so and you don't have any other risk factors (smoking, smoking in pregnancy, alcohol, drugs, v soft bed, obesity etc) then bringing them into bed and feeding lying down can be a good option and a lot more restful than getting up.

At 4 months this is normal - or at least from my experience of EBF it is. I night weaned both mine at 9 months because a) I felt they were big enough to go through the night at that age and b) I was on my knees with tiredness and felt it was the right thing to do for me. Luckily, they were ready and it was relatively painless.

It doesn't last forever, although with your first its hard to see an end - it's much easier when you've survived that stage once before!

AngelDog, I've met one of those "he's sleeping through, I just get up to re-settlle him several times a night" mothers too.

My niece and nephew both slept well from around 3 months so i know it does happen but surely my DS can not be the only baby not sleeping all night from a group of 13 babies.

Stranger, I think that's partly why the whole 'sleeping through' term is so confusing - people use it to mean wildly different things. Another friend's DS sleeps 'through' ie stays asleep till 5am. To me, that's not sleeping through: 5am is nighttime! But I'm blessed with a not-early-waker so my expectations (and therefore use of language re sleep) is different.

A bit like my friend whose DD slept through "At Last!" at 6 months. I'd have said, "Wow, really early!" at 6 months. How you talk about it reflects your expectations.

Wide-scale research shows that 47% of 1-3 year olds wake at least once a night and need parental help to return to sleep. 37% of 3-5 year olds need parental help to return to sleep at least once a night. Obviously the figures for babies are way higher.

My DD had good nights and bad nights. At 4mo she was up 1 or 2 times a night, but I was dream feeding at 10:00 so that would hopefully take us through til 3am and 1 feed back through til 6am. I don't know many babies who sleep all through the night so don't believe everything you hear!!! Now she's weaned (7 1/2 months) she sleeps 7pm to 5:30am most nights but just to keep me on my toes, she woke 2x at 8:30 and 10:00 and then again at 4:30 this morning! I have managed to not have to feed her at night since the last month. She would suck, suck, suck and pop straight back to sleep. Figured she wasn't really hungry it was more comfort so now if she wakes and cant get back to sleep I smooth her hair or sometimes pick her up for a little cuddle if she's crying. I keep a cup of water next to her cot just invade she's thirsty but really don't want to get back into bfing at night if I can help it. I'd heard it was hard to stop but for my DD it was surprisingly easy. I think I kept putting it off as I didn't want her to scream and wake up the neighbours but a cuddle was all she needed. Not suggesting you wean early as I think 6mo is right for most babies but once they are eating 3 meals a day and having some bf in the evening you shouldn't need to feed at night...providing you can be brave enough to try to stop!!!!

OP, DD1 slept through (settled with BF at 8pm, dream feed at 10pm) from 10 weeks - she's go 10 - 7.30. I thought it would be as easy with DD2, how stupid was I?

And DD1 went through a terrible separation anxiety phase when she was almost 2 and I was very pg with DD2, until I decided to sleep in with her on a mattress in her room she'd wake up and not settle every night! DD2 did not go through this at all, once she started sleeping really well at almost 1 that was it.

Just thought i would let you all know DS randomly started sleeping longer and dropped a feed from sat... slept 7 hours sat sunday and 6 hours last night

must have heard me moaning :)

Great news Lola!! Funny how they just 'do it' sometimes eh? Be warned though, mine still likes to keep me on my toes and throws in at least one night from hell once a week!!! Hope your DS keeps up the good work.

the certainly like to keep us on our toes button he was hellish on monday then great last night again i'm sure he's messing with me lol

Don't wish to scare you, but DS has just finally slept right through the night from 7pm to 6am for the first four nights in a row EVER at the age of 13 months! His first whole night happened at 11 months. We have done EVERYTHING to drop the night feed (went from 2 feeds down to 1 feed around 5 months old) but he simply was hungry. We have also found out that most of our friends who said theirs was sleeping right through lied or cheated! However, even with having to do the one feed a night, we had a boy that settled to sleep the majority of the time effortlessly, rarely woke bar the feed, has been in his own room/cotbed since 3 months old, and slept through to 7 or 7:30am every morning. Dropping the night feed means he is now up by 6am! Every child is different and no one has the perfect baby (yes I know, we ALL have perfect babies, but not the idealistic lifestyle everyone brags about!). We also find that when his pattern changes, it takes around 2 weeks to establish, so hopefully soon you'll be one feed a night full time. Good luck.